Finance Intern Review

I thouroughly enjoyed this placement experience as I felt a lot of emphasis was put on making sure you get the most out of it - getting involved in things you want to as well as your usual daily activities. A large amount of enriching training events and socials take place, meaning the skills gained are vast, as well as mixing up your day to day activities and keeping work enjoyable!

There is no such thing as "team intern" - so each intern is placed in their own team - and actually used as a real, useful, valuable member of the team! You have responsibilites that other people in the team rely on, and opportunities to get involved with things your colleagues may not have time to - meaning you are incredibly valued and your team would definitely struggle without you! Everyone is appreciative of your efforts, and understanding when you need a little extra help!

The levels of support are amazing. You have a line manger - who delegates you work and is your first point of call for personal development and work goals. There is a team of 3 internship scheme leads. You will have regular mentoring catch ups with 2 of them, meaning you regularly touch base with someone to chat about how you are getting on with etc. You also get given a grad buddy to ask questions to that you might not necessarily feel comfortable asking someone more senior! Separate to all of this, the future careers team organise monthly "power hours" desgined to help you with your personal development.

Mostly a perfect balance - there will be the occasional day where you feel either flustered or at a loose end - but there is enough people to chat to about how to sort it! Whether this is picking up some extra work, or delegating something to other people, your manager / scheme leads will support you. There is no expectation to work late / log on on weekends / come in early etc.

A large amount of respoinsibility is given, however it is very much directed by you in terms of how much you want! Your line manager will always be willing to check things over for you before sending them on to more senior memebers of staff so that you don't feel like it is all you fault if a mistake has been made! If there are things you are more comfortable with, you may not need this, and there will certainly be areas of work that you "own" and people will come to you for! This is all handed over gradually and as you are comfortable.

I do a mathematics degree so while my finance placement did not necessarily give me skills to directly apply to the content of my degree - it gave me a different set of skills. Prioritisation, self organisation and teamwork are all skills that have been vastly improved while on placement, and I will definitely carry forward into my final year of uni and beyond! Of course, the more direct accounting / business partnering skills I picked up will definitely help me should I choose to continue with a finance role in the future!

The general atmosphere is an up beat, happy environment. There are a lot of designated relaxation spaces, as well as meeting rooms that you can book if you need a calmer space to work. The system used is hot desking - meaning you get to sit near / chat to and learn from every day! Flexi hours are encouraged, so you will find a mixture of people arriving from 8-10am and leaving between 4-6pm. Staying super late to "impress" is not prevelant or encouraged.

Very well. You are given an incredible amount of support, guidance and structure. You are given many different people to go to for help, as well as a large number of personal development training sessions. Goals are officially entered and you will do a mid year and end of year presentation to touch base with all the other interns and their line managers - to see how everyone has been getting on. Lots of options for extra training / workshops etc.

The future careers team is very well invested in. We had monthly power hours on personal development topics such as "prioritisation" or "challenging conversations". Day long workshops also take place, for example before our mid year presentations we had a day of presentation training which was incredibly valuable. Another example was "insights" - a day all about learning how to work with people of a variety of different personality types. Mid year and End of Year Presentations help to keep structure around the year in terms of tracking progress in an official way.

Very appealing. The grad scheme is every bit as structured and supported as the placement scheme. There are different roles available on the grad scheme which expose you to a far wider range of areas within the business - meaning at the end of it your knowledge of Virgin Media will be exceptional. Grads are viewed as FBPs, and given very similar levels of responsibility as the fully qualified members of the team.

Yes - particularly amongst other placement students. The diffferent schemes are encouraged to mix, so you will not just socialise with other finance interns. The intern and grad schemes are also very closely linked - with all socials, and quarterly events taking place together. The quarterly events are a day of speakers / fun games and quizzes etc. amongst all interns and grads - to encourage networking amongs the grads and interns, as well as team buildings and knowledge of the company. Every spring, "The Grad Thing" takes place - a black tie ball accross all schemes. There is also a summer event and Christmas party, alongside the standard work Christmas party. Socialisation with other colleagues can vary - but as an intern organising team lunches / socials is often up to you, and you can work with your team to enjoy them!

Cost of living is quite high as Reading is a commuter town to London - however it is perfetly doable on your salary. Perfectly good range of cheap and expensive restaurants, bars etc. in Reading. Often socials will be combined with visiting the Hammersmith Office - as London has more to offer!

Reading is a student town so nightlife was good - also very good trasnport links into London (22mins) if you fancy! Lots of cocktail bars and pubs, as well as a ping pong bar! Good deals on student nights - slightly more expensive on weekends but not ridiculous! Lots of student housing is walkable to the town centre which is a bonus.

A fair few - a few excerise classes are run in the office such as yoga and kick boxing. The business park itself has some other opportunites such as a pilates class, and bootcamp! Lots of grad and intern socials as previously mentioned. Not an exceptional amount - as far as I am aware there are now standard football teams / pub quizzes / evening classes etc. Always encouragement to start something though!